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Reference

Keyboard shortcuts

The keyboard shortcuts for the Modeling and Nodes windows.

Locus has two windows - Modeling (the drawing canvas) and Nodes (the node graph editor) - and many shortcuts are specific to one. Tool letters and delete route to whichever pane you last clicked.

Note

On Windows, use Ctrl wherever the tables below show ⌘, and Alt wherever they show ⌥. Everything else is the same.

Caution

Confirm against the build Shortcuts evolve between versions. The app menus always show the current key equivalents next to each command - treat the menus as the source of truth if a shortcut here doesn't match.

Modeling window

Shortcut	Action
V / P / L / C	Switch tools (select, point, line, circle)
Esc	Cancel the current action, or deselect
Return / Enter	Repeat the last drawing command - survives Esc. Right-click on blank canvas does the same. See Repeating the last command
Delete / Backspace	Delete the selection
⌘A	Select all
⌘I	Select inverse
⌘G	Group the selected objects
⌘⇧G	Ungroup the selected group
⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z	Undo / Redo
⌘N / ⌘O	New / Open a document
⌘S / ⌘⇧S	Save (in place) / Save As...
⌘Q	Quit Locus Studio - asks first if you have unsaved changes (works from either window)
⌘D	Duplicate the selection as a clean, detached copy
⌘Y	Toggle Schematic mode - grey placeholder fills + hairline boundaries
⌘;	Show / hide all guides
⌘⇧;	Lock / unlock all guides
⌘9	Zoom to Fit - frame all geometry in view
⌘0	Actual Size - one drawing millimeter is one screen millimeter
⌘8	Zoom to Fit Selection
⌘= / ⌘-	Zoom in / out
Arrow keys	Nudge selected free points
Shift + arrow	Nudge ten times as far
Shift (while drawing)	Constrain the shape you're drawing

Note

Select-all and select-inverse are suppressed while you're typing in a value field, so they don't fire mid-edit.

Note

Windows note: zoom-to-fit used to live on Ctrl+Shift+0, but Windows reserves that combination at the OS level. It now lives on Ctrl+9 on every platform, so it always works.

Nodes window

Shortcut	Action
⌘G / ⌘⇧G	Create / dissolve a backdrop group
⌘U / ⌘⇧U	Select upstream / downstream along the wires
⌘L	Tidy Layout (auto-arrange the node graph)
⌘C / ⌘V	Copy / paste nodes
⌘A	Select all nodes
⌘D	Duplicate the selected nodes
⌘F	Find a node (opens the search palette)
⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z	Undo / Redo (a separate history from Modeling)
⌘9	Zoom to Fit - frame the whole node graph
⌘0	Reset zoom to 100%
⌘= / ⌘-	Zoom in / out
Tab / ⇧Tab	Advance / retreat through editable value fields
Alt-click a wire	Add a waypoint to reshape the wire

Tip

The Nodes window keeps its own undo history, independent of the Modeling window. Undoing in one pane never touches the other.

Keystroke overlay (Screencast mode)

Turn on Screencast mode in Settings... and Locus shows each modifier shortcut you press - key caps plus the command name - as a chip near the bottom of the window, for screencasts and tutorials. It's a pure overlay: it never intercepts the keystroke, so everything above still works exactly the same with it on. See Preferences for the toggle and the related mouse-button indicator.

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